Biden Would Expand Federal Role In Health Insurance

Joe Biden, Democratic senator and long-shot presidential candidate, is next up at the presidential health-care forums. He’ll be talking health care with a bunch of journalists (including the WSJ’s Laura Meckler) at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. Click here to watch the video.

Just this week, Biden released his health plan (online here). It calls for allowing all families to buy into the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, with sliding-scale premiums and co-pays based on income. He’d also allow people between 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare. And he’d allow the uninsured to buy into the insurance plan that covers federal employees, again on a sliding scale.

The Health Blog will be watching the Web cast, and we’ll write a post-game wrap-up that fills in some of the details — including where the money to fund these changes would come from. The event is part of the Presidential Candidate Forums, organized by the Federation of American Hospitals and Families USA.

Comments (4 of 4)

Maybe it is time to require competency tests of all congress critters who have had mental health issues. We can't afford the present free ride for retired people now-- what idiot would add persons who can afford to pay their own way. Solvent old people need to be kicked out of Medicare, not more clients added to further sink the US government. Health care isn't and shouldn't be a right.

3:09 pm October 25, 2007

NotU2 wrote :

Shelbinator, when he says buy into medicare, though, will this mean it can be offered through work? In other words, if you have an employee 55 or older, they will not need private insurance because they can buy into medicare. The private company will pay them to opt into medicare so their premiums are decreased. The end result, 10 additional years per person of medicare. Doesn't Joe B. realize medicare is already going to sustain a huge increase in numbers because of the baby boomers. It is already going to be broke, now it will be even worse.

1:44 pm October 25, 2007

shelbinator wrote :

I love it when mainstream press calls Joe a long-shot; they have such a great track record of being right this early in the past!

NotU2, the point you're missing is that a big part of Joe's plan is to provide a federal fallback for private, employer-based insurance on catastrophic costs SO THAT it keeps private insurance viable as the main solution. In the health care forum today, Joe said himself that when he was recovering from his brain aneurysms, he relied on his wife's employer-based insurance and not his federal coverage in the Senate because it was better. People who want a better plan and can afford it can buy it; the federal plan just fills in the gaps for those of us without the means.

1:38 pm October 25, 2007

NotU2 wrote :

Joe, I thought you were smarter than the others, but alas, you have fallen into the trap. Joe, don't you see, private insurance, even though it has beeen getting worse recently, has been keeping us afloat by paying more than medicare. If you allow 55 year olds to now enter medicare, the fees paid by medicare will not further reduce the reimbursmens doctors receive. Your solution is the same as the rest, don't allow the market to decide, let everyone join the socialized system and then decrease the fees paid. I'll tell you right now, let this continue to get worse and someday doctors will finally decide they've had enough.